Artemis and the electronauts

EUROPE has joined the race to design an electric jet engine for spacecraft that could mean cheaper commercial satellites and more ambitious scientific missions into the Solar System. Encouraged by trials on Eureca, its retrievable platform released into orbit by the space shuttle in 1992, the European Space Agency is now preparing to fit four electric thrusters to its new telecommunications satellite, Artemis, which is due to be launched in 1998.

ESA's move follows similar flights by Russia, the US and Japan, which see the technology as a way of producing spacecraft that would be lighter and cheaper to launch, have more room for payloads, or simply operate for longer.

Instead of chemical propellant in bulky storage tanks - which can make up two-thirds of the weight of a typical 3-tonne satellite - an electrically propelled craft relies on solar cells and around 300 kilograms of fuel. Although electrical propulsion ...

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